They answered that they would go ashore and supply all that was needful.
“Nay,” said Hassan, “you bide here until it comes.”
In the end, then, this happened, for one of the lords chanced to be a nephew of the Emperor, who, when he learned that he was captive, sent supplies in plenty. Thus it came about that the Cyprian lords having been sent back with the last empty boat, within two days they were at sea again.
Now Rosamund missed the hated face of the spy, Nicholas, and told Hassan, who made inquiry, to find—or so said Lozelle—that he went ashore and vanished there on the first day of their landing in Cyprus, though whether he had been killed in some brawl, or fallen sick, or hidden himself away, he did not know. Hassan shrugged his shoulders, and Rosamund was glad enough to be rid of him, but in her heart she wondered for what evil purpose Nicholas had left the ship.
When the galley was one day out from Cyprus steering for the coast of Syria, they fell into a calm such as is common in those seas in summer. This calm lasted eight whole days, during which they made but little progress. At length, when all were weary of staring at the oil-like sea, a wind sprang up that grew gradually to a gale blowing towards Syria, and before it they fled along swiftly. Worse and stronger grew that gale, till on the evening of the second day, when they seemed in no little danger of being pooped, they saw a great mountain far away, at the sight of which Lozelle thanked God aloud.
“Are those the mountains near Antioch?” asked Hassan.
“Nay,” he answered, “they are more than fifty miles south of them, between Ladikiya and Jebela. There, by the mercy of Heaven, is a good haven, for I have visited it, where we can lie till this storm is past.”
“But we are steering for Darbesak, not for a haven near Jebela, which is a Frankish port,” answered Hassan, angrily.
“Then put the ship about and steer there yourself,” said Lozelle, “and I promise you this, that within two hours every one of you will be dead at the bottom of the sea.”
Hassan considered. It was true, for then the waves would strike them broadside on, and they must fill and sink.